Hours After Meeting on a Bus, They Carried Out a Murder

A Colorado woman upset with her boyfriend attempted to drown and burn his cat before teaming up with a stranger to kill the man. Ashley White, 29, resented 28-year-old Cody DeLisa for criticizing "her struggles in securing full-time employment," the Adams County District Attorney's Office said in a Jan. 28 statement announcing her conviction on second-degree murder and other charges. On Aug. 13, 2020, as White was taking a bus home from a job interview, DeLisa sent her a text, expressing "skepticism about her chances of getting the job, which upset White," who turned to a stranger on the bus for help, the DA's office said, per CBS News.

After White told the man, who said his name was Scott, that DeLisa had raped her, the two concocted a plan to kill him. They got off the bus, tested the man's gun, then walked to White's Commerce City home, where they told DeLisa that Scott was White's brother. "A short time later, DeLisa was shot twice in the head," the DA's office said, without specifying who pulled the trigger. It did, however, note White and her accomplice fled only after stealing DeLisa's wallet. They went their separate ways a few days later, shortly before White was arrested and charged with murder. "This was a tragic and senseless murder and Ashley White bears significant culpability for it," DA Brian Mason said, per USA Today.

White—whose prior attempt to kill DeLisa's cat had "raised alarms about her mental well-being"—was convicted of second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, and robbery following a three-week trial in January and is due to be sentenced April 4, per the DA's office. Police believe they know the identity of her accomplice, though he isn't named Scott and hasn't been charged in the case. The man's girlfriend contacted the DA's office in 2023, saying her boyfriend had given a confession that matched White's account of the murder. The man was then in custody for the murder of another man, but he was "deemed incompetent to stand trial in that case," the DA's office said. (More murder stories.)